Many of us struggling with addiction are also watching loved ones do the same, and we feel as though we’re accompanying them along their recovery journey, just as we’re undertaking our own. One of the most painful things we can experience along the way is our loved ones refusing to get help, giving up on themselves, and abandoning their sobriety. We’re inundated with fear – fear that our loved ones will hurt themselves even worse than they already have, fear that they’ll never be able to get better, fear that we’re not doing enough for them or helping them enough. When we prioritize our own recovery by doing things like creating distance between ourselves and their drug use, for example, we can feel guilty, as though we’ve turned our backs on them. We feel a great sense of obligation to helping them, and watching as they give up on themselves can be extremely painful for us.
Getting Off Track
This particular experience can be quite triggering for us mentally and emotionally. We might find ourselves tempted by our drug of choice when we see our loved ones using theirs. We might even find ourselves relapsing after all of our hard work, in part because we feel pressured by the addictive patterns of our loved ones. We can experience worsened periods of depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues because seeing our loved ones’ suffering is especially hard for us. When we’re confronted with this challenging situation, our addictions and mental health issues can take a turn for the worse, and we might have a hard time getting back on track. We might struggle to put ourselves and our well-being first because we feel we have to make sure our loved ones are cared for.
Losing Heart
When our loved ones give up on their recovery work, we naturally feel a deep sense of disappointment, both for them and for ourselves, because we’ve come a long way with them, supporting them throughout their struggles. We can feel that their hard work, as well as ours, has all been in vain. We can feel defeated, disheartened and pessimistic. We can question whether or not it’s worth it to keep trying to get well, or to keep helping our loved ones.
Practicing Faith
We want to remind ourselves when times like these arise, that all of our many challenges are part of our evolution. Sometimes our recovery requires that we experience missteps, thwarted attempts, mistakes, and regrets. We’re meant to learn from them, and everything else we go through. We want to be supportive of our loved ones as they wrestle with their faith, their inner demons, and their very challenging illnesses. We want to have faith that they will come out on the other side, healed and well, as will we.
Are you ready to take the first step on your journey to recovery?
Call The Guest House today! 855-483-7800.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488